Topic Title: ICAO Code
DWT
Airline Name
Darwin Airlines (Etihad Regional)
Country of Origin
Switzerland
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
AT75 (ATR 72-500),DH84 (Dash 8 Q400),
S200 (Saab 2000),
Why should this airline be added?
This airline was founded in August 2003 and began operations in the July of the next year. Its head office was in Lugano and operated hubs both in Lugano, Geneva & Cambridge, flying to destinations across Europe as a regional airline, mainly taking up routes other airlines couldn’t afford to operate such as for Swiss with the Lugano to Zurich route, and operating regional routes from small airports such as Ancona & Trapani to Rome. In 2013, Etihad bought a 33% stake in the airline, which led to the majority of the fleet being rebranded to the Etihad Regional livery, but without any major changes in scheduling and routes.Through 2014 and 2015, Darwin was struggling and offsetting some of their routes due to heavy competition, binning some routes from Berlin and Lyon, followed by all routes from Turin and other Italian cities due to the EU being unwilling to allow a Swiss airline to bypass cabotage restrictions. It did begin supporting both Alitalia and Air Berlin in some of their regional routes due to their relationship with Etihad, bu these were short lived. In 2017, the airline was sold to Adria but this wasn’t enough to save it and it declared bankruptcy in December 2017.
Would be an interesting regional airline for European operations, especially with the strange Etihad Regional livery some aircraft used, plus would add some colour to players airports such as INN.